In one of the dead end alleys of the cubical farm, one of the dedicated workers leaned backwards in their chair and whispered around the barrier to their neighbor, “Hey have you seen Agent Johnson?”
Their neighbor scooted her chair out and answered, “She’s still undercover.”
“But we busted the exotic animal smuggling operation two weeks ago. There was a shoot out and everything.” Their eyes narrowed in confusion.
“Well, she said it would compromise future operations if they broke cover right after the bust.”
They leaned back into their cubical and scooted their chair out into the alley as well, “They?”
“Her ‘wife’ and ‘kid’ are still undercover with her,” she said.
“Wait, wait, where did we get the kid? Aren’t his parents going to want him back?”
“His parents were agents. After they died in the line of duty, he became a ward of the agency. Unofficially he’s a junior agent if such a thing existed.”
They shook their head slowly. “Jeez, that’s rough. What about the ‘wife’?”
“Oh, she’s loving the suburban life. Her apartment was on Third street. The bad part of Third street.”
Their eyebrows shot up their forehead, “Wow, I know our salaries aren’t great but third street?”
“She has student loans and bad credit from identity theft. Couldn’t get in anywhere else.”
“The agency could help with that?” they asked.
She spread her hands in front of her and shrugged. “Not their problem as long as she showed up to work. But now she’s in a nice house in the suburbs with a kid and wife.”
“I guess but they have to break cover at some point.”
“I heard the chief talking about moving them to witness protection.”
“They’re just going to become a family?”
“The Chief is a really good matchmaker. We lose more agents to his team-ups than anything else. Also, they had a big bonding moment during the car chase slash rescue slash shoot out.”
“I wonder if it’s too early to apply for a promotion?”